Desert storm in a teacup

The first Dubai writers' festival is on this weekend with a strong program of 50 international writers such as Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Jung Chang, Penny Vicenzi and Simon Armitage, and sessions on Arab writing, to show the desert city of commerce also has culture. But the sponsor, Emirates Airline, did not get the pre-publicity it was hoping for.

In a messy controversy, a British writer, Geraldine Bedell, complained that the launch of her novel The Gulf Between Us had been cancelled because it has a character who is a gay sheik. Another invited guest, the Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, withdrew from the festival over the "banned" book because she is vice-president of International PEN, an organisation that defends freedom of speech. The Guardian in London named her "Civil Liberties Hero of the Week".

But a few days later Atwood published a sheepish statement in The Guardian. She had learned Bedell's book had never been accepted for the festival and no launch organised; therefore it had not been dropped. As Atwood acknowledges, books are rejected for festivals all the time on suitability grounds but perhaps the Dubai festival director, Isobel Abdulhoul, was too frank about her reasons.

"Having leapt into this dog's breakfast, I have it all over my face," wrote Atwood. "Books are seriously 'banned' and 'censored' around the world, and people have been imprisoned, murdered and executed for what they've written. A loose use of these terms is not helpful." Earlier this week she was "considering her options".